Product Description:

Keeping in step with the themes of THE DAMNED and DEATH IN VENICE, Luchino Visconti's final entry in his "German Trilogy" further explores issues of complicated and repressed sexuality. A lush, atmospheric dramatization of a tormented Bavarian king's brief but colorful reign, LUDWIG traces the ruler's loves for Elisabeth of Austria (his cousin) and composer Richard Wagner, culminating with his final descent into madness.

Description by Koch Entertainment Distribution:

Director Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Death in Venice) brings his famed majestic style to this lavish and operatic portrait of Ludwig II, the 19th century ‘"mad king" of Bavaria, whose obsession with Wagner's music inspired him to build fairytale castles and finally to lose his already-fragile grip on his sanity. From his glittering coronation to his mysterious suicide, Helmut Berger portrays the emotionally unstable Ludwig through all his madness in this late masterpiece from the most aristocratic and enigmatic of Italy's filmmakers. Also starring Trevor Howard, Silvana Mangano, Gert Frobe, Romy Schneider.